PEEK - A- BOO!
That would be my Ashley. A cold front had FINALLY come through and it was so nice in the morning. So the dogs, Ashley, and I hung out in the front yard and took pictures. I told Ashley to smile and this is what she did. Not surprising really.....
Today's picture tells a heart-warming story. If you saw my post about 2 days back, I posted about losing our precious puppy, Diesel. Looking from today's picture, HE'S HOME!! Eric and I were at the table discussing what to do next and I just wasn't ready to give on him. My main worry was that he was laying in the woods hurt or worse, dead. I had to know, regardless of the outcome. So I asked Eric to go exactly to the place where Diesel ran away and check again. There is a small construction site right there and on there were men there working, this day (Monday was Labor Day). Eric asked them if they had seen a black puppy recently and they said 'Yeah...he's been hanging around here all day.' Eric's mouth dropped and they pointed him in the direction they saw him last. He went into the wooded area but he wasn't finding him. Then he heard one of the men say 'Hey guy! Come here....he's out here.' Eric ran out there and sitting right next to my truck was Diesel. As soon as Eric said his name, he immediately ran to Eric. I heard the truck pull up after only being gone for about 10 minutes. My immediate thought was 'Oh no, he's home so quickly because he found him, dead.' It was silent when he walked in and all I heard was Aubree scream 'DIESEL!!!!' I was speechless and tears were streaming down my face. I couldn't believe he was really home. Miraculously, he is not hurt at all. He stunk, was tired, and was very dehydrated. After 2 days of being home, he is back to himself again. We missed him so much and are beyond excited to have him home.
Another favorite of mine! Aubree is so good with Ashley and Ashley is in such awe of her big sister. This isn't one of those 'every once in a while' moments. This actually happens quite often. But the angle I had was perfect! I love these girls so much.
Today's picture has somewhat of a meaning to it. This day ended up being a hard one for the family. While I was driving down a busy road, our puppy, Diesel, jumped out of the back seat window. Before I had a chance to react quickly, he ran off into the wooded area. Eric, Justin, and I spent hours looking for him but we had no luck. After running like crazy and realizing that he was probably gone for good, I saw this Thistle bush next to some barbed wire and saw a good picture. I thought of how if Diesel were with me, he would probably eat the thistles, run into the barbed wire, and whine like a little baby. We miss him so much.
YES...there is water in Texas. Haha! We went on a hike with some good friends and at the end is this creek with a waterfall. We were really worried that it would be completely dried up but we were in luck. It was barely trickling but it was something. I got to the bottom of the waterfall and decided to try a photography technique that I've been reading a lot about. I shot the waterfall with a fast shutter speed to pretty much make the water look like it was stopped. Then, I slowed down the shutter speed to make the water look more flowy. I love the look of the slow shutter speed one. (this one)
I took this one on my phone....while driving. Oops! I thought it was kinda neat how this one little cloud was making such a big impact on the skies appearance.
Gavin is quite the ham but some of the best pictures I get of him are when he has no idea I'm shooting him. This one is proof of that. He is too cute!
I loved the clear blues and clear skies we had this day (even though there were tons of wildfires buring). Another favorite of mine is catching lens flares....got one! :)
Aubree is quite the kid model. Maybe I should look into getting her some work.... Nah....she needs to be a kid for a little longer. :)
AGAIN....it's been HOT! This is my brother's thermometer thingy. The sensor was actually under the awning in the shade. Yeah, that says 115.5 degrees. I think it got all the way to 116.2 before it finally went down. Thankfully, this mess is supposed to end soon.
I picked this picture to show you how truly dry it is here. It has gotten so bad, that it is litterally starting to look like it's towards the end of Autumn already (wish it felt that way). It is getting pretty serious here in Texas. Someone send us some rain!!!
Here's my Ashley....looking like she just got caught doing something. Don't worry, she didn't. At least not this time....
I felt like trying my hand at showcase photography, so I cut up some pieces of that S'mores dessert and took some detailed photos of the inside. Kinda neat....but still tastes nasty. :)
You are looking at roasted marshmallows on top of melted milk chocolate, on top of sugar cookie/graham cracker mix. I found this recipe on an app and decided to try it. Even though it looks pretty good, it actually ended up being WAY too sweet and the marshmallows were tough. Oh well!
We start them young in our family. :) I took Aubree and Ashley to the public library after school one day and Ashley took it upon herself to get a book off the shelf, sit down, and flip through it. Too cute!
This is Aubree's first day of 1st grade!! I had to take a beginning of the year picture and on the last day, I will take an end of the year picture. Last year, it was amazing to me how much she grew. She started school two weeks ago (I'm THAT late on updating) and she is absolutely loving it!
Another picture from the track from Friday night. There was a Pontiac Firebird there that liked to do some major burnouts before his runs. The smoke-screen the car made was huge and with the lighting behind the smoke and the official walking into the smoke, it made for a great picture.
This past Friday, Eric and I headed out to our local dragway with a group of friends. Of course, Eric couldn't go without taking a few runs down the strip. And I couldn't pass up a good excuse to work on my action photography.
I captured this awesome picture of Ashley licking her 'Krazy Kookie Dough' ice cream at the creamery. I never realized that she had such a long tounge. Haha!
This is my good friend's son, Gavin. The creamery we went to had large picture windows and the kids had a blast playing on them and looking out at the trees.
After 25 years of living in the state of Texas, I finally made it to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Creamery in Brenham, Texas. If you don't already know, Blue Bell is the best freakin ice cream out there. I went with my good friend, Joanne, her son, Gavin, and my girls. We all had so much fun and got a serious serving of ice cream at the end of our tour. Ice cream goodness!!
My girls are always playing with flowers. Even with our fields of hay (that is supposed to be grass) we do actually have a few areas of flowers. Too cute!
What's not to love about a sign like this? I took this picture a Morgan's Point liquor store. Gotta love their sense of humor.
This picture was taken July of 2010 on Ashley's first birthday! This, of course, was her birthday cake. And it was hand-made by the awesome, Amber Thomas. She is a really good friend of mine and I literally cried when I first saw this cake. It was beyond my expectations and it was just plain beautiful. I know it's been over a year but thanks again, Amber. :)
Ahhh....this picture to me is so breathtaking. It is my favorite place in the whole wide world...Lake Tahoe, California. My in-laws live about 30 minutes from there so whenever we visit them, I always have to take at least one trip to see my favorite lake. This one was taken in August 0f 2008. We were there to attend my sister-in-law and now brother-in-law's wedding. It was almost 3 years ago. Happy Anniversary Matthew & Holly!
I took this picture the day that our little Ashley was born. I was in labor at Scott & White and was in between contractions so I took this picture of Eric's eye. :) I wonder if that's the way his eyes looked when he watched her being born? Haha!
This sunset was taken in Wichita Falls, Texas sometime in 2008. Aubree and I took many trips from Lawton to San Angelo and Wichita Falls was on the way. Beautiful!
This was taken in Lawton, Oklahoma in January of 2009. It was the worst ice storm I had even been in and a year later, there was an even bigger one (thank goodness we had moved to Texas by then)! I was pregnant and Aubree and I were getting cabin fever so we took a stroll out to the park that was close to our house. I have a ton of pictures of the ice accumulating on everything. It might be cold (which I hate) but it was very pretty.
Love this kid! This one was taken at Medicine Park, Oklahoma in October of 2008. Aubree was only 3 years old...crazy to think. We went there with some friends to take pictures of our kids. I remember it being a beautiful Autumn day....and it was college football day (hence the reason Aubree is wearing a football jersey). :)
I love me some sunsets!! This one was taken from here in Temple in 2010 sometime. The amazing purples, pinks, yellows, and oranges will just take your breath away. It might get hot here sometimes but these things make it all worth it. :)
My mud kid! At this time, which was taken in Lawton, Oklahoma in 2008, I only had one mud child. Now, I have two. :) I like to live my childhood through my kids so whenever possible, I would encourage Aubree to play in the mud on the side of our house. I loved watching her have a blast and get dirty. I'm proud to say that I do not raise girly-girls. Haha!
Aubree lost her 4th tooth! She's kinda funny when she figures out that one of her teeth is lose. She wiggles it like crazy until it gets really lose, then she comes to me and has me loosen it more with a piece of thread until it pops out. I took this picture just as the tooth was hanging by threads and one more pull, and the tooth came out. So funny!
Yesterday, we were invited to go swimming at our friend's swimming above-ground pool. It was soooo nice and I did not want to get out! All the kids had a blast and have all improved so much on their swimming. The sun was shining directly on the water and saw this beautiful picture. The blues, shimmers, and shapes were so beautiful.
I didn't take a picture this day so I decided to post a picture that I took back in January. One of Aubree's best attributes is obviously her beautiful blue eyes. I love them!! So I had her open her eyes really big while I took a picture. She did great...haha!
Our high temperature today was 107 degrees. Factor in the humidity, and we're talking around 111 degrees. Yeah, it was STUPID hot today. At 9pm, my truck thermometer read 100 degrees...and the sun was completely down! Can you tell I'm not enjoying this heat anymore? :) I took this picture around 7pm tonight. It is looking straight at the sun (I obviously wasn't looking in the viewer). I tried to give the picture that super hot look to it. Maybe another picture like this tomorrow? It's supposed to be just as hot.
I'd say our corn crops are looking pretty sad this year, wouldn't you? What's even more sad is that they were charging almost $1/corn!
Yep! That is rain and clouds you are looking at. But....it didn't hit us. We had some friends over yesterday and they were on their way home when they actually hit this one little rain storm. So as I took this picture, they were underneath it. We didn't get any rain but I got some good pictures. That's something, right?
Aubree's sunflowers are so beautiful right now! Almost all of them have bloomed and Aubree makes sure that I look at them everyday. And I don't mind doing it. Aubree watered her flowers this afternoon and being the lover of dew drops that I am, I rushed to get my camera. I took this one from underneath one of the sunflowers and I was able to catch the blue skies. The contrast of blues and yellows is so beautiful to me. Good job, Aubree!
Yesterday, Eric was gracious enough to take care of the girls and let me go to a Mom's Night Out. We had this one at the Morgan's Point pool which I was blown away by. It is sitting on top of a hill and it was overlooking the Belton Lake. It was so beautiful....especially the sunset. I couldn't stop looking at it and thinking about what kind of a picture it would be after every few minutes. Texas may be hot but I love it here! :)
